Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/34

 of ‘Household Words.’  The Christmas numbers in his periodicals, and especially in ‘All the Year Round,’ had a larger circulation than any of his writings, those in ‘All the Year Round’ reaching three hundred thousand copies. Some of his most charming papers appeared, as the ‘Uncommercial Traveller,’ in the last periodical. For his short story, ‘Hunted Down,’ first printed in the ‘New York Ledger,’ afterwards in ‘All the Year Round,’ he received 1,000l. This and a similar sum, paid for the ‘Holiday Romance’ and ‘George Silverman’s Explanation’ in a child’s magazine published by Mr. Fields and in the ‘Atlantic Monthly,’ are mentioned by Forster as payments unequalled in the history of literature.

In March 1861 he began a second series of readings in London, and after waiting to finish ‘Great Expectations’ in ‘All the Year Round,’ he made another tour in the autumn and winter. He read again in St. James’s Hall in the spring of 1862, and gave some readings at Paris in January 1863. The success was enormous, and he had an offer of 10,000l., ‘afterwards raised,’ for a visit to Australia. He hesitated for a time, but the plan was finally abandoned, and America, which had been suggested, was closed by the civil war. For a time he returned to writing. The ‘Tale of Two Cities’ had appeared in ‘All the Year Round’ during his first series of readings (April to November 1859). ‘Great Expectations’ appeared in the same journal from December 1860 to August 1861, during part of the second series. He now set to work upon ‘Our Mutual Friend,’ which came out in monthly numbers from May 1864 to November 1865. It succeeded with the public; over thirty thousand copies of the first number were sold at starting, and, though there was a drop in the sale of the second number, this circulation was much exceeded. The gloomy river scenes in this and in ‘Great Expectations’ show Dickens’s full power, but both stories are too plainly marked by flagging invention and spirits. Forster publishes extracts from a book of memoranda kept from 1855 to 1865, in which Dickens first began to preserve notes for future work. He seems to have felt that he could no longer rely upon spontaneous suggestions of the moment.

His mother died in September 1863, and his son Walter, for whom Miss Coutts had obtained a cadetship in the 26th native infantry, died at Calcutta on 31 Dec. following.

He began a third series of readings under ominous symptoms. In February 1865 he had a severe illness. He ever afterwards suffered from a lameness in his left foot, which gave him great pain and puzzled his physicians. On 9 June 1865 he was in a terrible railway accident at Staplehurst. The carriage in which he travelled left the line, but did not, with others, fall over the viaduct. The shock to his nerves was great and permanent, and he exerted himself excessively to help the sufferers. The accident is vividly described in his letters (ii. 229-33). In spite of these injuries he never spared himself; after sleepless nights he walked distances too great for his strength, and he now undertook a series of readings which involved greater labour than the previous series. He was anxious to make a provision for his large family, and, probably conscious that his strength would not long be equal to such performances, he resolved, as Forster says, to make the most money possible in the shortest time without regard to labour. Dickens was keenly affected by the sympathy of his audience, and the visible testimony to his extraordinary popularity and to his singular dramatic power was no doubt a powerful attraction to a man who was certainly not without vanity, and who had been a popular idol almost from boyhood.

After finishing ‘Our Mutual Friend,’ he accepted (in February 1866) an offer, from Messrs. Chappell of Bond Street, of 50l. a night for a series of thirty readings. The arrangements made it necessary that the hours not actually spent at the reading-desk or in bed should be chiefly passed in long railway journeys. He began in March and ended in June 1866. In August he made a new agreement for forty nights at 60l. a night, or 2,500l. for forty-two nights. These readings took place between January and May 1867. The success of the readings again surpassed all precedent, and brought many invitations from America. Objections made by W. H. Wills and Forster were overruled. Dickens said that he must go at once if he went at all, to avoid clashing with the presidential election of 1868. He thought that by going he could realise ‘a sufficient fortune.’ He ‘did not want money,’ but the ‘likelihood of making a very great addition to his capital in half a year’ was an ‘immense consideration.’  In July Mr. Dolby sailed to America as his agent. An inflammation of the foot, followed by erysipelas, gave a warning which was not heeded. On 1 Oct. 1867 he telegraphed his acceptance of the engagement, and after a great farewell banquet at Freemasons’ Hall (2 Nov.), at which Lord Lytton presided, he sailed for Boston 9 Nov. 1867, landing on the 19th.

Americans had lost some of their provincial sensibility, and were only anxious to